42 Transactions. — Miscellaneotts. 



overO-OW which wells up so grandly ; and many underground rivulets, following 

 ancient valle3^s in the tertiary clays, must be convergent to form those noble 

 springs. ' And the farther inland at which water is sought, the smaller and 

 further apart will be those rivulets, until, on reaching the summit of the 

 watershed at Mount Eden, the minimum will be attained ; and, although at 

 that elevation a basin may be found containing many million' cubic feet of 

 water, it would only be a work of time to exhaust it if the all-important points 

 of rainfall and gathering ground are inadequate to keeping up the siipply. 



Art. VIII. — On the Reclamation of Samd Wastes on the Coast, and the 

 Prevention of their Inland Advance. By James St]::avart, C.E. 

 \^Read before the AucHand Institute, 4th September, 1873.] 

 The existence of a very serious evil will be recalled to mind by perusal of a 

 carefully-considered paper on the above subject, by Mr. C D. Whitcombe, as 

 given in the last volume of the " Transactions,""' especially by those who have 

 had occasion to notice the increasing and apparently resistless advance of sand 

 inland from a great length of our coast line. In places this is covering the 

 fairest and most fertile soils, burying forests, and driving before its dread 

 advance all the efforts hitherto made by a few individuals more immediately 

 concerned to ward off or retard its progress. The subject claims public 

 attention, as not only has a very large tract of country been lost to settlement 

 already, and many fertile farms are now being threatened with annihilation, 

 but, as is shown in the jDaper referred to, and well remarked during the 

 discussion on it, the existence of streams, the navigation of rivers, and safety 

 of lighthouses, and such like, are concerned in the adoption and success of 

 preventive measures. This attention, if it is to be at all, cannot be awakened 

 too soon. 



The features presented by this encroachment vaiy on different coasts, but 

 it will suffice to describe those nearest to Auckland. Those are, the coast 

 from Waikato to Manukau Heads, and from Waitakerei to Kaipara Heads. 

 The former is, where uncovered by driving sand, of a very fertile nature in 

 general. It is a rich sandy loam — in some places an excellent black soil — 

 throwing up a good pasture, and carrying a stock of, in some cases, the 

 heaviest cattle which come into the Auckland markets. The land is very 

 easily brought into cultivation, and is about all taken up, and much of it 

 settled on. 



*' Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. V., p. 108. 



